Washington (CNN) - An angry Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein warned again Monday she would investigate why the FBI did not notify oversight committees about its probe into CIA Director David Petreaus after the bureau determined he was having a secret and risky extramarital affair.

"...A decision was made somewhere not to brief us, which is atypical," the California Democrat told NBC's Andrea Mitchell about how the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate intelligence committees are usually briefed on key developments. "This is certainly an operationally sensitive matter. But we weren't briefed. I don't know who made that decision."

(CNN) – One of the co-authors of the Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction plan, which failed to gain the approval of President Barack Obama in 2010, said now that Obama has won a second term in the White House, the political climate will be friendlier to a debt deal.

"I think this is truly the magic moment. We've got a second term Democratic president who's willing to put entitlements on the table," Erskine Bowles said on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." He also praised House Speaker John Boehner as someone "who really gets it" and who is "willing to put revenue on the table."FULL POST

(CNN) – Rep. Paul Ryan described his election loss with Mitt Romney last week as a painful surprise but argued the president won re-election "fair and square," according to the congressman's interviews with local news outlets in Wisconsin on Monday.

"It hurts to lose a big election like this, but I don't have any regrets whatsoever," Ryan told The Journal Times of Racine on Monday, adding that they "ran the kind of race we wanted to run" and campaigned on "specific solutions and big ideas."FULL POST

(CNN) - Critics are already gushing over Steven Spielberg's new "Lincoln" as a potential Oscar contender. Much of the praise centers on how the film makes the larger-than-life president at once heroic and human.

By all accounts, it deftly explores both his personal and political wisdom through scenes like the one in which Daniel Day Lewis, who plays Honest Abe, cites ancient mathematical theory in an assessment of humanity: "It's a self-evident truth that things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other."

(CNN) - In an email sent to reporters on Sunday night, a White House official laid out President Obama’s meeting schedule for the week culminating in the first round of negotiations with Congressional leaders on how to avoid the impending fiscal cliff at the White House on Friday.

The president will be meeting with leaders from both parties at the end of the week, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

CNN's GUT CHECK | for November 12, 2012 | 5 p.m.
– n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

BREAKING: LABOR TO PRESS OBAMA ON TAX HIKE FOR WEALTHY… A cadre of top labor leaders are headed to the White House on Tuesday to press their concerns about the fiscal cliff. Top most on their list: Tax hikes for the wealthiest Americans, and protection from cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other programs for low income families. CNN has confirmed that among those attending the meeting with President Obama are: The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President Richard Trumka, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Mary Kay Henry, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, (AFSCME) President Lee Saunders and National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel. … Labor leaders want to make sure Obama makes good on his promise to raise taxes for households making more than $200,000 a year, or $250,000 if married, by allowing those tax cuts to lapse and bringing in some revenue via that route. “Clearly there was a mandate from this election, the American people are with the president on taxing the wealthiest Americans," said Peter Colavito, director of government affairs for SEIU. "Our people expect leaders in both parties to honor that mandate and ask everyone to pay their fair share of taxes.” – Jennifer Liberto and Adam Aigner-Treworgy

CNN's GUT CHECK | for November 12, 2012 | 5 p.m.
– n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

BREAKING: LABOR TO PRESS OBAMA ON TAX HIKE FOR WEALTHY… A cadre of top labor leaders are headed to the White House on Tuesday to press their concerns about the fiscal cliff. Top most on their list: Tax hikes for the wealthiest Americans, and protection from cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other programs for low income families. CNN has confirmed that among those attending the meeting with President Obama are: The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President Richard Trumka, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Mary Kay Henry, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, (AFSCME) President Lee Saunders and National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel. … Labor leaders want to make sure Obama makes good on his promise to raise taxes for households making more than $200,000 a year, or $250,000 if married, by allowing those tax cuts to lapse and bringing in some revenue via that route. “Clearly there was a mandate from this election, the American people are with the president on taxing the wealthiest Americans," said Peter Colavito, director of government affairs for SEIU. "Our people expect leaders in both parties to honor that mandate and ask everyone to pay their fair share of taxes.” – Jennifer Liberto and Adam Aigner-Treworgy

Washington (CNN) - With Florida finally called and the 2012 presidential election falling into the rear view mirror, here's a look at another reason why President Barack Obama won re-election: The Democrats held their "blue wall" - the cluster of eastern, Midwest and western states that have traditionally gone Democratic and were crucial to his victory.

"Democrats held the entire 'blue wall'. They have now won 18 states in at least six consecutive elections, the most states they have won that often ever, since the formation of the modern party system in 1828," says CNN Senior Political Analyst and National Journal Editorial Director Ron Brownstein.

(CNN) – In an election that broke boundaries, Hawaii elected the nation's first practicing Hindu to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Congresswoman-elect Tulsi Gabbard, who will represent the state's second district, told CNN Monday that her election "shows the respect, diversity and love and aloha that people have in Hawaii that would allow for something like this to happen."FULL POST